Kerala High Court Questions Maintainability Of MLAs' PIL Against ED Probe Into KIIFB, Reserves Verdict

The Kerala High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a PIL moved by five MLAs against the ongoing Enforcement Directorate probe into the financial transactions of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). 

A Division Bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly doubted the maintainability of the plea on the grounds that it may not qualify as a public interest litigation and that the investigation of the case was still at its preliminary stage.

Therefore, the Court while indicating that it could be premature, reserved its verdict on the issue without admitting the plea. The Bench also asked the summoned officers of the KIIFB to appear before the ED and cooperate with the investigation.  

Senior Advocate Ranjith Thampan appeared for the petitioners and contended that the ED had been issuing summons to several officials of the KIIFB to tarnish its goodwill which would be detrimental to the development of infrastructure in the State.

However, Central Government Counsel Jaishankar V. Nair appearing for the ED submitted that the concerned officers who have been summoned by the ED should cooperate with the investigation rather than filing PILs. He submitted that the officials were refusing to appear despite being issued with summons and that they were merely attempting to derail the ongoing investigation.

At this juncture, the Court agreed that the summoned officers should appear before the ED and cooperate with the investigation. 

The PIL was moved by MLAs K.K Shailaja, I.B Satheesh and M. Mukesh, E Chandrasekharan and Ramachandran Kadannappally. The MLAs argued that the ED has been repeatedly attempting to malign the goodwill of the KIIFB and other statutory and executive establishments of the State. 

"An impression is sought to be created that something is wrong in the functioning of the KIIFB," reads the plea.  

It had further objected to the repeated summoning of several office bearers of the Board including its CEO, and particularly to the wide publicity given to the same.

The PIL also prayed for the introduction of a mechanism to resolve disputes between the Centre and State and their respective statutory agencies.

Earlier today, another single bench of the court had heard a plea filed by former Finance Minister of Kerala Dr Thomas against the proceedings initiated by the ED seeking his appearance in connection with the financial transactions of the KIIFB.

Case Title: KK Shailaja & Ors. v Union of India & Ors.